How to get QtCreator to link incrementally with nmake?

Question

I used to develop in Visual Studio (2008) but almost completely switched to developing in QtCreator now, mainly due to Code Navigation, refactoring and Code Completion. I'm using the win32-msvc2008 mkspec. So far I've managed to set up everything except for one thing:

Incremental Linking.

In my project file I added the line:

QMAKE_LFLAGS += /INCREMENTAL

and I get a linker line like

link /LIBPATH:"(...)" /NOLOGO /INCREMENTAL /DEBUG /MANIFEST (...)

However, it always tells me it cannot find the .exe or it was not built completely by the last incremental build, even if I only change a .cpp file, revert the change and save.

I've tried building with and without shadow build, and with nmake or jom, neither combination works.

Has anyone managed to get QtCreator to link incrementally with nmake?

PS: If I import the project file into Visual Studio using the Qt Plugin, incremental linking works perfectly.

Answer 1

Apparently qmake needs to generate the makefiles differently in order to make incremental linking work properly when you are using nmake.

I filed a bug request, if you're interested, here it is: https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-22718